Chapter 303

After five hours of artillery preparation, the German artillery fire began to extend, and only the Seventh Army of the Expeditionary Force, which was directly under the heavy artillery brigade, did not carry out artillery fire counter-suppression. The German firepower was so fierce that at least three heavy artillery brigades were firing, including quite a few guns of more than 200 calibers.

The thick smoke had not yet cleared, and the sound of the tank engine could already be faintly heard.

Li Pinxian, a first-term student in Baoding, came out of the anti-artillery hole, spit out the sand and gravel in his mouth, and shouted loudly: "The German army is coming up, ready to fight." "The Baoding Military Academy in this time and space is somewhat tragic. Especially the first generation, it is even more tragic. They are also Army University, and they are not as good as the protégés of the Son of Heaven who graduated from Wuhu Lu University. After the fall of Yuan Shikai, many first-term students in Baoding quit the army or went to the reserve security regiment, but Li Pinxian persevered, even if it was just a company commander.

Two French-made infantry guns were dug out of the bunker, which was improved by the French, reduced to a caliber of 57mm, and lengthened the barrel, turning it into a professional anti-tank gun. To deal with the German tanks, the expeditionary force was armed with a lot of these guns, up to the level of two per company.

Five hundred meters away, eight tanks were spotted in front of the position of the eighth company, followed by no less than one battalion of German infantry. The barrage Xu Jin plus the tanks and infantry advanced were the tricks that the Germans would only use against the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Of course, this was a tentative offensive, and even if it was tentative, the Germans committed a brigade of troops at one time.

"Divisional seat, this is a tentative attack by the German army, and the artillery regiment should not expose its position." Chief of Staff Gao Shuai was a little nervous and came to Wu Peifu's side to report. Wu Peifu didn't like this part of the crash course of the teaching team very much, and felt that his personality was a little boring. In fact, the officers of the Beiyang system don't like the officers from the teaching team very much, and feel that they are promoted too quickly.

"Hmm. Let's see. Wu Peifu replied expressionlessly, this order was somewhat cold, without the support of artillery, the pressure on the infantry on the front-line position increased suddenly.

Rumble! Rumble! Two shells fell in the Germans, did not hit the German tanks, only knocked over a few people. The tank spotted the presence of infantry artillery and immediately stopped to shoot in retaliation. Rumble! Rumble! The second round of infantry artillery fire, hitting a tank.

The German tanks returned fire one after another, and the soldiers of the two infantry guns fired methodically against the fire of the German tanks. When I saw this scene. Li Pinxian had a deep respect for the artillery platoon commander Huang Cheng and his subordinates, who were also thin. These first-term students of Nanjing Artillery School can be regarded as half of the protégés of Tianzi. In the Wehrmacht, a team with a low level of culture. They belong to the people with "status", which makes it difficult for them to get along with ordinary soldiers. Especially since they have been officers, many veterans have been frightened, and in private they even think that they will definitely be sluggish when they fight.

Li Pinxian was also very worried about the will to fight of these artillerymen, and he only found out when he really fought. These young people are not simple.

Boom, boom, one infantry gun was hit directly by the counterattack fire of the tank, and all four gunners fell. Li Pinxian felt a pain in his heart, and when he waved his hand to let people go up to the rescue, a shell also fell on the side of the other cannon, although the cannon was fine. All four gunners fell. "Lose his mother!" Li Pinxian saw Huang Cheng falling, jumped out of the trench, and the messengers around him hurriedly followed. A trot rushed to the gun position. Huang Cheng, whose head was covered with blood, had already gotten up, looked around and had no companions, calibrated the gun position alone, and pulled the gun rope after aiming. With a bang, a German tank was hit and caught fire.

"Cannonballs!" Huang Sheng hissed. I have forgotten that my comrades have fallen, and a shell has been pushed into the chamber of the cannon. I noticed that it was Li Pinxian who came. Huang Cheng smiled hard and said, "Go back to your command position, you are the company commander." ”

As he spoke, he continued to aim, shoot, miss, and bared his teeth and cursed, completely ignoring the blood that was dripping down. The medical soldiers came up to bandage him, and Huang Cheng said: "Wait a minute, come and carry the shells alone." ”

Li Pinxian sent two soldiers to Huang Cheng, and when he slipped back to the position, a shell hit Huang Cheng's infantry gun. Seeing Huang Cheng fall in a pool of blood, Li Pinxian smashed the dirt with a punch.

The Germans continue to approach, and the remaining three tanks have approached the anti-tank trenches, and whether this thing can play a role in actual combat is still a question mark. Three hundred meters later, a German tank suddenly plunged forward, revealing the infantry behind.

"Fire! Fight the infantry! Li Pinxian gave an order, and two 60 mortars took the lead in speaking, and the two guns of Dong Dong were ejected, and at the same time as they blew up a piece of German troops, the Makqin machine gun rang out.

The tide-like German troops retreated, and in the high-powered artillery mirrors, the Chinese mortars were still chasing, and gradually the battlefield ushered in a brief silence. Bob, the new general of the German army, pursed his mouth tightly, always staring at the battlefield opposite.

Boom, boom, the German artillery fired again, and when Bob didn't notice the return fire from the Chinese heavy artillery, he retracted his gaze somewhat disappointed and stood up. A German lieutenant colonel next to him stepped forward and said, "General, please allow me to lead a tank assault team to attack." ”

Bob gave a stern look at his most powerful assistant, Guderian, a man he had discovered when he was fighting the Russians in the east. He has an unusually keen understanding of how to use tanks to launch attacks. "Didn't you see the anti-tank trenches dug by the Chinese? Didn't you find that the heavy artillery of the Chinese never fired? You sue me, now that the tanks are attacking, how do you solve these two problems? ”

Bob's eyes asked, and Guderian stood up and bowed his head speechlessly. After a pause, he said, "If only our planes could find the Chinese artillery and bomb it." ”

This sentence made Bob's heart move for a moment, and then he shook his head and said: "Don't count on planes for the time being, they are all dealing with the heavy artillery of the Americans." After saying that, Bob continued to observe from the gunner, and the position of the squadron was shrouded in a sea of fire. The heavy artillery unit, which arrived only in the early hours of the morning, played an important role at the critical moment. Bob is well aware of the tenacity of the Chinese, as well as their military system. Under such circumstances, any officer and soldier who dares to flee will be severely punished by battlefield discipline.

In the afternoon, the general headquarters of the Troyes Expeditionary Force, in the war room, Cai Ye has been circling in circles, waiting for the latest news. When Feng Guozhang strode in, Cai immediately asked, "Where are the French?" Is there any update on Americans? What's going on with Lan Jihao? Feng Guozhang silently handed over a telegram, Cai Yi took it and looked at it, and threw it on the table angrily.

The French army changed its hexagram and changed to a Ninth Army to reinforce, the commander of the group army was called Fuxi, this army has been resting, and the Ninth Army was excellent in the previous battles, but the losses were not small. After the temporary replenishment, there are currently 12 infantry divisions and more than 300 large-caliber artillery pieces. On the telegram, Petain explained that this change was to take the initiative to attack in the western theater, and the effect would be better. Petain demanded that the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the U.S. Army work closely together to hold the defensive line.

In other words, the reinforcements on the French side were an incomplete group army, and even the original plan for the counterattack of the Chinese expeditionary force was changed. This made Cai Ye very annoyed, and said angrily: "The order is changed, go to the telegram and ask, what do the French want to do?" ”

At this time, Zhang Xiaohuai strode in and said: "No need to ask, it is obvious that the French army is more interested in recovering Paris." I guess the British and French armies had the plan to let the Chinese and American armies hold back the main German army, and they would go to recover Paris and recapture Reims. ”

"So what do we do? Fight back or not? "Feng Guozhang has nothing to do, without the reinforcement of a decent group army of the French army, it is difficult for the expeditionary force to reverse the situation of being passively beaten.

"It's a fart to fight back, and the U.S. military doesn't know if it can last a few days." Cai Ye scolded and walked to the map worried.

"Let the French army go directly to Saint-Dizier and cooperate with the American army to hold on. The Third Army was drawn from the reserves to reinforce the Seventh Army. The rest of the troops, after nightfall, abandoned the first line of defense and withdrew to the second line of defense. That's all there is to it, the French are too bastards. Cai looked at the map for a while and made adjustments.

Zhang Xiaohuai said: "If necessary, retreat across the Obu River." Cai Yi shook his head and said: "No, if we withdraw, the US army will be miserable." Unless French reinforcements arrive and a new line of defense is set up behind the American troops, failure to hold it in one breath will be the result of a total rout. ”

"Britain and France have assembled a hundred infantry divisions in the western theater of operations, ready for an offensive on a scale. The wounds of the Battle of Nivelle were still bleeding, and the French forgot that they were in pain. Feng Guozhang sneered, and soon made a bitter face, really unhappy.

"Hurry up and contact the French Ninth Army and ask where they are. Damn foreign devils. ”

The sun was setting again, and the last touch of blood on the horizon was supporting, and Li Pinxian on the battlefield breathed a sigh of relief for the time being. Throughout the day, the Germans launched one fierce attack after another, as many as fifteen times. There were only about 30 people left in the entire Eighth Company position, and this was the result of supplementing three reinforcements, and Li Pinxian miraculously survived, but a piece of flesh was cut off from mortar shrapnel on his arm. In fact, in the morning, Li Pinxian was able to withdraw, but unfortunately, before he could withdraw, the German attack began, so he had to stay and continue the battle. At that time, there were about fifteen people in the Eighth Company. After a battle, the reinforced commander and deputy company commander of the ninth company were killed, and Li Pinxian had to stay and continue to command the battle.

"Inform the battalion headquarters that we need reinforcements, otherwise this 500-meter front position will not last for five minutes." Li Pinxian casually called a soldier to report that his correspondent Xiao Geng had already died.

After repelling the Germans again, Wu Peifu also breathed a sigh of relief. The German attack was too crazy, and for a whole day, all the reserves in his hand were smashed out, and although the casualty figures were not counted, Wu Peifu knew very well in his heart that there were at most seven or eight thousand people left in the 44th Division. Even so, the divisional artillery regiment never opened fire, and Wu Peifu had to stay until the most critical time.